Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Not adding up

It's a struggle with the apples and pears of BBC stats. A new BBC response to an FOI request refuses to share expenses details for BBC People staff, because, as there are 758 in the department, it would take longer than the specified time to collate.

Hang on. We just had a National Audit Office report on BBC staff numbers, in which the HR department said efficiency, at a ratio of 1 HR member of staff for every 72 operatives, was just around the corner, to be delivered in 2017/8.

The current BBC headcount used by the NAO was 18,920. That makes the current HR ratio close to 1:25. The 2017/8 target of 1:72 would require an HR department of just 262, and the shedding of 496 jobs in a year.